Making of a German Constitution : a Slow Revolution

48 • The Making of a German ConstitutionThe event that tested the constitutional basis of the Empire was the Württembergtax revolt of the 1760s. It was this revolt that produced the two German iconic defendersof constitutionalism, Johann Jakob Moser and Johann Ludwig Huber. Moser’swritings on public law were the most influential of the period, and Huber’spoetry continued to capture the liberal imagination well into the nineteenth century.The Württemberg tax revolt inaugurated in German-speaking Europe the modernlegal orientation of political ideology and demands for political reformation.The indivisibility of Württemberg under the protection of the emperor was reaffirmedin 1495. So long as they were not in violation of the basic laws of the Empire,legal arrangements were left to the duchies. For purposes of maintaining the peace,contracts between dukes and their estates also found protection under the imperialbasic laws. The estates in Württemberg were represented by an assembly called theLandtag, and in the absence of a local nobility was dominated by an elite group offamilies known as the Ehrbarkeit or worthies. Duchy constitutions also were notderived from a single document, but were contracts that had developed over time.The strength of the worthies had resulted from the emergence of the money economyand the increasing inability of dukes to live off their own private resources (Kammergut).In return for granting taxes and taking over ducal debt, the estates were ableto secure important powers in the governance of the duchy, which were guaranteedby charters and actionable in imperial appellate courts. The most important of thesefor Württemberg was the Tübinger Vertrag of 8 July 1514. In the nineteenth century,the liberal poet Ludwig Uhland praised it as Württemberg’s Magna Charta.In exchange for taking over princely debt, the estates had extracted it from DukeUlrich in 1514. In each instance of a takeover of princely debt thereafter, the estatesconsistently extracted concessions in the form of written contracts. The power of thepurse and Landtag approval of all taxes were the most important powers secured tothe estates.Thus, from the sixteenth century, unless the dukes of Württemberg were able tomaintain economic independence, they found their powers significantly restrainedby what was called the ‘gold old law’. No such independence was forthcoming.Additional agreements also limited ducal access to independent income and, accordingly,limited his unchecked authority in the realm. While Church lands were confiscatedunder the legal reformation of 1534, the Landtag was able to extract a seriesof church ordinances from the duke in the 1550s. Accordingly, after the deduction ofany running costs, all other profits from these lands had to be placed in a Kirchenkasten(fund for churches) and could only be used for designated pious purposes. Whatis more, under the ‘gold old law’ the estates possessed the sole right to levy taxesagainst the subjects of the realm. This occurred through the levying of a direct tax.In the emergency climate of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), a new indirect taxcalled the Accise was introduced. This, however, also remained under the strict authorityof the estates and was deposited into their own treasury, the LandschaftlicheEinnehmerei. From this they made only a voluntary contribution (Kammerbeitrag) to